Under Pressure

Written by Chloe Shenton. Photo by Meral Crifasi.

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Undoubtedly teenagers face mounds of pressure on a day to day basis; but is the extent to what they are confronted with exceeding too profusely?

It can range from what to wear to deciding what exactly you want in life but sex is possibly the biggest dilemma within young adults. Whether its concern with your performance first time – or the age you finally lose your virginity, it is number one on the list of what to do next. It doesn't necessarily have to be related with peer pressure, yet young adults appear to have achieved a subconscious mind set; going into college or university with your 'v plates' intact is the height of social pariah.

No doubt sex has lost value throughout the years and is usually expected by both male and female participants within the first month of a young relationship. Romantic relations are innocent in the sense that a much more analytical depiction of a relationship has emerged: friends with benefits. In short term this is basically two friends sleeping together, in turn causing media enthusiasts to create films about what friends with benefits can entail. It hasn't just stopped at the creative level - a lot of people deem this an appropriate way to sleep with someone without any sentimental ties or risks of getting an STD. What could be better than hooking up with your best friend on a night out? Is it any wonder a generation growing up with examples of meaningless sex want to do it at a younger age, minus any affliction of who they necessarily do it with?

Clearly night club and bar owners use student night and 'fresher’s week to exploit the primal desire people have for sex and combined with alcohol it can usually create bountiful amounts of one night stands. Without alcohol you're categorised as subliminally boring. For regular alcohol drinking delinquent there is nothing more fulfilling than getting a lightweight drunk: again another obligation teenagers encounter from a young age. Similar to the age of people losing their virginity – alcohol drinking children is becoming more apparent and done at a younger age.

As if it wasn’t hard enough to battle through life with your hormones raging, the government demand that you decide what exactly you want to do with the rest of your life before you’re even legally allowed to drink. At the tender stage of year nine - options are the basis of the academic year – it also tends to be the year you hit puberty and the only thing you want is to be in the same class as your most recent crush. Fourteen year old you has then specified vaguely what you would want to do at a later stage. Personally I find it odd that as teenagers we are allowed to have so much responsibility for ourselves; still we are still bound to laws and regulations to keep us in line until we are eighteen. It’s clear that when wanted adults give us the responsibilities they do not want to take upon themselves, yet make sure they have total control over you for eighteen years.

Every teenager must encounter these types of demands and each individual shall manage it slightly differently. Facing these types of things when technically still a child has possibly caused the most decisive and independent generation; in a sense arguments could state that starting out from such a young age is a positive thing. Everyone has different anecdotes but there is no doubt that pressure within teenagers is at an all time high.